New fuel efficiency requirements proposed by feds will be hard to meet, automakers say

New fuel efficiency requirements proposed by the federal government will be hard to meet, according to many people who work in the auto industry.

The Obama administration recently announced a tentative proposal to roughly double the miles per gallon average for vehicles by the year 2025.

Charlie Klein with General Motors says most people don’t understand how hard it is to improve fuel efficiency, without sacrificing affordability.

"When you’re in the game of efficiency, working in percents is tough slogging," says Klein. "I think customers take these small numbers of a percent, a percent and a half for granted, but frankly we have engineers working on that every day and that is no easy task."

Klein spoke at an annual conference in Traverse City hosted by the Center for Automotive Research.